Observations on politics, news, culture and humor

Obama and the border

NYT reports that Obama is asking Congress for $500 million more to be spent on more security along the U.S.-Mexican border. The price tag doesn’t include whatever it’s going to cost to make his cockamamie idea to send 1200 National Guardsmen to the border a reality. The stated reasoning for it:

Concerns about drug smuggling and illegal immigration have emerged as potent issues in Congressional midterm campaigns, particularly in Arizona, where a rancher was killed in March in a crime with suspected links to drug smuggling. In April, lawmakers there enacted a state law intended to deport illegal immigrants.

Yep, there’s nothing more important than going even deeper into debt so we can keep out human beings who just want a chance to work and substances that could be used by consenting adults to get high. Especially when keeping out those substances requires supporting an all-out war in Mexico that is killing people like it’s going out of style. It’s best of all when you are doing it to save your political butt.

So much for being the change.

If Obama really wanted to change things and get this country back on the human rights railroad, he would make immigration completely legal for anyone who comes in through an official border crossing, passes a health screening and registers with the government. You know, like we did for however many years at Ellis Island. He also would end the prohibitions on consenting adults using substances arbitrarily defined as narcotics and stop encouraging the drug war in Mexico. Don’t hold your breath.